Coupled with the region's generations of entrepreneurial people and a very natural pro-business and pragmatic approach to problem-solving, these technological discoveries and new companies promise to rejuvenate and transform the area into one of the leading advanced materials manufacturing centers of the world.

The commercial geography of the Northeast Ohio region has always been diverse - and yet focused. A range of businesses from blast furnaces to banks defines the diversity of this dynamic region. A center of the automobile industry since the days of Henry Ford, the center of the tire industry, a major center of steel and the related and vast metalworking industries, Northeast Ohio still leads in manufacturing of all kinds, but with a very clear high-tech, advanced-materials approach today.

While there still are major steel-producing plants in the region, they are among the most advanced in terms of technology in the world. Plants of USS-Kobe in Lorain and others in the Cleveland, Youngstown, and Warren areas created the first theme of this area in terms of industry, metals, and metalworking. You could call this new theme the New Age of Materials.

A good example of this transformation of the region from rubber and steel and metalworking to all kinds of new materials and their processing into new products is the amazing development of the polymers and plastics industry throughout the region. "There are some 2,500 polymer companies in Ohio, and a majority of them are in Northeast Ohio," points out University of Akron president Luis Proenza.

In fact, the polymers and plastics industry is the No. 1 industry in the region today. Dr. Proenza expects the industry in Ohio and particularly the area in the Northeast quadrant to double in the next few years. "We are fueling the engine for that" at the University of Akron with the help of numerous companies and various groups like the Ohio Polymer Strategy Council and the Global Polymer Academy of the University of Akron. "We are also establishing the Ohio Polymer Enterprise Development Corp., which is designed to ensure that we have a facility that focuses on the needs of small- to medium-sized companies in the field," Proenza says.

Materials Revolution Continues

The basic idea is progress through research in all of these programs and in similar initiatives in materials and other areas of technology at Case Western Reserve University to the north in Cleveland. Meanwhile, numerous companies, small and not so small, have been turning the high-tech materials revolution into successful businesses.

"This is where it's at," says Scott Rickert. His company, Nanofilm, is in Valley View, directly south of Cleveland. Founded some 17 years ago, Nanofilm has grown to appoximately 50 employees who produce state-of-the-art coatings that are measured in nanometer (a billionth of a meter) thickness for eyeglasses. Nanofilm recently received patents on the design of much-improved machines for applying these coatings, Rickert explains.

"The nanotechnology industry is centered right around the Great Lakes," he adds. "In fact, biotechnology, which so many states seek, is actually a subset of materials science and particularly nanotechnology. Biotech is a tiny part of that."

Rickert notes that his firm and the industry will be expanding the technology's market reach soon "into the auto market in terms of windshields and other aspects. We provide a perfect view, is the way I like to say it."

Rickert notes that the nanotechnology materials field is particularly at home in Northeast Ohio "because the industrial R&D focus here is already on materials, and nanotech makes no distinction between ceramics, metals, polymers, and composites."

"If you're interested in the next generation of materials, it makes sense to be here," he says. What is emerging in the area, he adds, are "nano assets," companies like his that are commercializing new materials discoveries from private and university research. This could become the center of the nanotechnology world, he adds.

Bringing new companies based upon new technologies and new materials has been made a little easier in Ohio since it is how researchers in universities can continue to own companies that use technology they developed or helped develop. This will lead to some very significant successes in the next year or so in the context of new, high-technology, materials-based firms in the region, says George Newkome, dean of the graduate school, professor of polymer science, and president of the Research Foundation of the University of Akron.

Technology Transfer Plus

The foundation's focus is on materials, especially polymers and related substances. Partly because of the Research Foundation and partly due to another program involving a novel kind of technology transfer, there will be several new companies in the region in various high-tech fields, all based in some way on their polymer and materials research.

These various fields include thermoplastic molding, wound care, diabetes treatment, and assessment software, to name a few, Newkome says. Others will be companies producing proprietary polymer-based displays technology for television-type screens.

Besides the Research Foundation, the other approach is a method for bringing "already-existing intellectual property into the marketing mainstream by introducing various patents and technologies that are part of larger corporations into smaller corporate structures. Sometimes a multibillion-dollar outfit can't justify the use of new products or processes that might make a lot of business sense to a smaller outfit. So why not try to tweak it into a useful stage?"

"What this means," he continues, "is taking advantage of the wealth of industrial strength in the area." Lured back to his hometown from Florida, the research leader says of the region: "This is one of the most marvelous areas of the country. It has enormous numbers of companies, great amenities, and the lake."

Back up towards "the lake," which is what everyone calls Lake Erie in the Northeast Ohio region, is another great collection of research institutions, including Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and vast, world-renowned medical establishments, including the famed Cleveland Clinic, University Hospital, and CWRU's own Medical School as well as the labs of Case Institute of Technology in chemistry, physics, and materials science. Carrying on other research in the area are firms such as Nottingham & Spirk (N&S), which can point to more than $10 billion in sales of its various product designs during the past 30 years. "Innovation is what we do," points out co-president of N&S John Spirk. Adds co-president John Nottingham, "What we are in the middle of here is the greatest square mile of advanced technology and brainpower in the world."

Brainpower per Square Mile

It is the University Circle environment that they refer to as that greatest brainpower square mile, but, "We can rely on the greatest concentration of expert plastics rotational and injection molding shops in the world right in Northeast Ohio as well," says Mr. Nottingham.

A fast-growing software company, Hyland Software of Westlake, is another example of high-tech entrepreneurship taking strong root in the region. Notes President and CEO A. J. Hyland, "The excellent business climate and the cost of living here" are two good reasons why his firm is not on the West Coast.

Over those three decades, the region has witnessed the formation of thousands of other startups in all facets of modern, high-tech business and industry. One such recently founded company is Lazorpoint in Lakewood, Ohio.

"I worked for Intel in Portland right after I graduated with my electrical engineering degree, but after a year I decided I wanted to return to my Midwestern roots and Lakewood to form my own company," says founder and president David M. Lazor.

Lazorpoint is "the point man" for smaller and medium-sized companies when it comes to information technology, explains Lazor. "We bring peace of mind about IT to the smaller companies. We take care of all their IT needs by doing much of the software and computer work for them as well as bring in appropriate vendors for what we don't do."

Entrepreneurial Heaven?

Why come back to Lakewood, to the Northeast Ohio area? "I wanted the Midwestern lifestyle and family values, and just about everything you would want is here in terms of the standard of living as well as attracting the technologically trained people we need." Lazor notes that his firm has already developed a special relationship with the placement functions of the area's colleges and universities. He mentions John Carroll University's program called the Muldoon Center for Entrepreneurs in particular as a special help to new businesses in the region.

"The Muldoon Center is actually part of the John Carroll University Business School and is designed to help the students in the business school develop entrepreneurial career paths," says John C. Polk, director of the Muldoon Center. "Part of the center offers business memberships in the John Carroll Entrepreneurship Association, which broadly does work helping members through networking and consultation in terms of cultivating entrepreneurial talent."

"Our goal is to find and help talented, risk-oriented people as well as to help the leadership of organizations that already exist," Mr. Polk adds. These efforts and similar ones in the region give the area a "joiner" atmosphere and a networking potential unmatched anywhere in the nation. Yet, because of the region's diversity of interests and technologies, there is little duplication of efforts.

Biotech Materials

The other universities in the region also offer significant support to new, high-tech ventures; Case Western Reserve University's technology transfer office frequently serves as a model for such efforts. Suffice it to say that the area has no shortage of helpful groups desiring to assist the new arrivals in the high-tech business world as well as those already established. However, while materials research may dominate in the Akron area with its focus on polymers and plastics, other areas focus on different aspects of the vast and exciting field of materials research. In the University Circle area, for example, it is often biotech and medical research, and entrepreneurial work.

Biotech research and commercialization in the region get a big boost from the CWRU initiatives in the field and specifically from the Biotech Enterprise Corp., which is planning and developing a bioscience facility on property adjacent to the campus. The facility will house research facilities and entrepreneurial organizations seeking commercial outlets for biotechnology.

Next door to this new facility is one of the largest concentrations of emerging medical technology in the world: the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and a newly energized medical school.

In the middle of all of that is one of the country's finest managerial schools, the Weatherhead School of Management in its spanking-new and striking building design by Frank Gehry, sponsored by local insurance tycoon Peter B. Lewis.

Of course, the area's larger firms in advanced technology can take advantage, and do, of the many scientific laboratories and engineering resources of the area, such as the Cleveland Engineering Society (one of the most active such organizations in the country with speakers and workshops throughout the week) and the various physics, chemistry, engineering, and computer labs and research outfits in the area.

Other groups such as the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and the Business Roundtable also offer excellent support for the entrepreneur in high tech in the area. One group, the Council on Smaller Enterprises of the growth association, is of particular note. Called COSE by its thousands of members and others, the group is focused on the needs of the smaller and newer companies in the region, and offers everything from technical support to insurance.

The Northeast Ohio business climate for high-tech and emerging technology entrepreneurs is as good as it gets in the United States or anywhere else in the world. And what comes with that climate and the numerous groups that can be called upon for assistance is a cultural and social environment that is the equal of the biggest cities in the country.

The future may call Northeast Ohio the high-tech materials research and manufacturing center of the world.